Various trading strategies
In the following table, we will summarize several commonly used trading strategies involving various types of options:
Names |
Description |
Direction of initial cash flow |
Expectation of future price movement |
---|---|---|---|
Bull spread with calls |
Buy a call (x1) sell a call (x2) [x1 < x2] |
Outflow |
Rise |
Bull spread with puts |
Buy a put (x1), sell a put (x2) [x1 < x2] |
Inflow |
Rise |
Bear spread with puts |
Buy a put (x2), sell a put (x1) [x1 < x2] |
Outflow |
Fall |
Bear spread with calls |
Buy a call (x2), sell a call (x1) [x1 < x2] |
Inflow |
Fall |
Straddle |
Buy a call and sell a put with the same x value |
Outflow |
Rise or fall |
Strip |
Buy two puts and a call (with the same x value) |
Outflow |
prob (fall) > prob (rise) |
Strap |
Buy two calls and one put (with the same x value) |
Outflow |
prob (rise) > prob (fall) |
Strangle |
Buy a call (x2) and buy a put (x1) [x1 < x2] |
Outflow |
rise or fall |
Butterfly with calls |
Buy two calls (x1, x3) and sell two calls (x2) ... |